There ’ s a Psychiatrist Crisis in America That Few Are Talking About

There’s a psychiatrist crisis in America and virtually nobody is having a serious conversation about how to fix it. It’s not clear how we, as a nation, can brag about our amazing healthcare system when finding a psychiatrist who takes your insurance and is open to new patients is virtually impossible in most places in the U.S. Even worse is that the crisis is still growing and little is being done to avert it. Over at Popula, Jameson Rich details his ordeal in trying to find a new psychiatrist that takes his insurance: My therapist would make a dosage recommendation in consultation with some other doctors, she said, but still another doctor would have to write the prescription. Luckily, I have a doctor who’d written me the drug in the past. He was comfortable with this only because the dose had been prescribed by an actual psychiatrist, years earlier. But his office refused in an email: “Restrictions are getting tighter and tighter.” Then I tried my cardiologist, sending emails to my therapist and messages through the hospital’s patient e-system to my cardiologist, and each telling me to have the other one call them. With this finally resolved, I turned next to the hospital’s outpatient clinic. “We don’t take your insurance.” “…Excuse me? ” Disbelief; more calls. I called the first number back just to be sure. “So, you’re telling me that no psychiatrist in the entire hospital takes my insurance?” “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m tel...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: General Policy and Advocacy Professional Psychiatry Treatment american psychiatrist lack of psychiatrists psychiatrist crisis Source Type: blogs